Zenith

Zenith Electronics Corp. reported Thursday that net losses at the television manufacturer doubled to $105.9 million last year from 1991. Revenue at the company, based in Glenview, Ill., fell to $1.24 billion last year from $1.32 billion in 1991 when Zenith lost $51.6 million. In the fourth quarter, losses totaled $20.3 million compared with a profit of $500,000 a year earlier. The company cited price declines in the color TV industry last year. The 1992 results included pretax charges of $24.8 million in the fourth quarter and $48.1 million for the full year for severance and restructuring costs.

Today, when about 90 million people are expected to gather around televisions for the biggest sports party of the year, it might be fitting to raise the remote controls in a salute to Eugene Polley. Polley, 90, who lives in a junk-cluttered house, plays pool for pocket change and likes a smooth gin and tonic, is the patron saint of couch potatoes -- or he would be, if they knew who he is. Fifty years ago, Polley invented the wireless remote. In return, he got $1,000 and a lifetime of gnawing irritation at being squeezed out of pop-culture history.

A plan that would have helped Zenith International Airlines Inc. to start flying has collapsed.Zenith, based in Orlando, will neither fulfill its option to buy 90 percent of Air One Inc. stock nor establish a service contract with Air One, according to Leslie A. Davis.Davis represents Air One, a St. Louis-based airline, in its attempt to reorganize finances and resume flying through Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.Under the proposal, Zenith would have provided Air One with as much as $1 million.

Zenith is one of the oldest, most recognizable names in TV and audio. Ask your parents or grandparents, and they will probably talk for hours about the wonders of watching black-and-white programming in the early days of television a half-century ago. However, the company isn't mired in the past. It has survived and prospered by changing with the times, leading to its current emphasis: "Digitize the experience.'' One of the company's showcase mainstream products, the DA3520 DVD Surround Sound System, underscores the advances in sound that have kept Zenith in the forefront of home entertainment.

The 15-year-old granddaughter of the Zenith Electronics Corp. founder had LSD in her system when she shot herself to death, according to a medical examiner's report. Kirstie McDonald shot herself once in the stomach with a .44-caliber handgun April 19 at her brother's northern San Diego County home. She told officers that she had shot herself. An autopsy report released Friday said it could not be determined what role the powerful, mind-altering drug may have played in her death. It also said investigators were unable to determine whether the shooting was accidental or intentional.

Zenith Electronics Corp. will lay off 388 workers at its suburban Chicago television picture tube plant as its struggle to compete against cheaper Japanese televisions continues. The layoffs are in addition to 409 firings the Glenview, Ill., company announced earlier this month. The workers will be let go from Zenith's Melrose Park plant, which analysts expect will eventually close or be sold. Zenith has reported only one profitable quarter since 1985 and has never recovered from the influx of Japanese sets that began in the mid-1970s.

Zenith Electronics Corp. won a $1 billion contract to provide set-top boxes for Americast, a joint venture among Walt Disney Co. and four regional Bell companies, boosting hopes that Zenith's plan to sell advanced TV and Internet equipment will succeed.Zenith's shares skyrocketed on the news, closing up $5.50, or 48 percent, to $16.875.The order, Zenith's biggest for a product other than televisions, calls for the money-losing company to make at least 3 million digital set-top boxes for Americast.

Zenith is one of the oldest, most recognizable names in TV and audio. Ask your parents or grandparents, and they will probably talk for hours about the wonders of watching black-and-white programming in the early days of television a half-century ago. However, the company isn't mired in the past. It has survived and prospered by changing with the times, leading to its current emphasis: "Digitize the experience.'' One of the company's showcase mainstream products, the DA3520 DVD Surround Sound System, underscores the advances in sound that have kept Zenith in the forefront of home entertainment.

About half the households in America are on the Internet, but nearly every home is equipped with a TV. If you're one of the Internet have-nots, and happen to be shopping for a new TV, there's a new Zenith set worth a close look. The new model will enable you to try out the Web with a minimum of fuss and bother. And if you don't like the experience, you still have a nice, new television in your den or bedroom. The Telecruz D27B48T comes with free Internet access and built-in modem, so there's no hardware to add if you're looking to get online.

It isn't necessary to fight the crowds at a 20-screen Cineplex or spend big bucks to convert an extra room into a home theater. Now you can have your theater -- with some of the latest technology -- and even take it with you. The Zenith DVP7771 Portable DVD Player meets the description of versatile, high-tech toy. The centerpiece of the Portable DVD Player is the 7-inch screen, shaped like a movie-theater screen. It uses the same "liquid crystal display'' technology found in laptop computers and flat-panel monitors.

It isn't necessary to fight the crowds at a 20-screen Cineplex or spend big bucks to convert an extra room into a home theater. Now you can have your theater -- with some of the latest technology -- and even take it with you. The Zenith DVP7771 Portable DVD Player meets the description of versatile, high-tech toy. The centerpiece of the Portable DVD Player is the 7-inch screen, shaped like a movie-theater screen. It uses the same "liquid crystal display'' technology found in laptop computers and flat-panel monitors.

A $2,000 TV set with a puny15-inch screen? You've got to be kidding. No, Zenith isn't kidding. Its new Inteq LCD TV is on the smallish side, but it offers two-for-the-price-of-one features, along with a crystal-clear picture. The slender Inteq works as a TV and does double duty as a computer monitor. With its two-tone, silver and gray case, it also adds high-tech decorative appeal to any room in the house. The 15.1-inch LCD TV uses a screen similar to what's found on a high-end laptop computer.

About half the households in America are on the Internet, but nearly every home is equipped with a TV. If you're one of the Internet have-nots, and happen to be shopping for a new TV, there's a new Zenith set worth a close look. The new model will enable you to try out the Web with a minimum of fuss and bother. And if you don't like the experience, you still have a nice, new television in your den or bedroom. The Telecruz D27B48T comes with free Internet access and built-in modem, so there's no hardware to add if you're looking to get online.

Today on Oprah . . . Click. . . . the courts in Florida must decide whether a hanging chad . . . Click. Yo! Wazzzzup . . . Click. "The clicker," "the zapper," "the changer" -- whatever we choose to call it, the television remote control is the granddaddy of all gadgets, as indispensable to the family room as the TV itself. It has been blamed for ballooning waistlines, shrinking attention spans and strained relationships. And this year the remote control is 50 years old. We can hardly remember life without it -- especially when television-watching is at its height, as during holidays.

Zenith Electronics Corp., longtime maker of one of America's most recogniz-able name brands, is emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy to become a subsidiary of one of the competitors that nearly drove it into extinction. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., has approved Zenith's prepackaged reorganization plan, the company announced Monday. Now, Zenith will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Korea's LG Electronics Inc., which also makes Goldstar products. The Zenith brand will continue to appear on products.

BAARN, Netherlands - PolyGram NV's film division could fetch as much as $1 billion for Seagram Co., which said it would sell the unit to help cover the cost of its $10.6 billion acquisition of the world's largest music company, announced Thursday. Analysts said two French companies, Canal Plus SA and Pathe SA, and two German companies, Kirch Group and Bertelsmann AG, are the most likely bidders for the maker of films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral. PolyGram's own chief executive, Alain Levy, also may try to buy the business, the Paris newspaper Les Echos reported.

ZENITH ELECTRONICS Corp., in difficult straits from a weak consumer market, said Tuesday it will join forces with Soundesign Corp. to sell audio products under the Zenith name. Zenith, based in Glenview, Ill., and the only remaining U.S.-owned manufacturer of color television sets, said it reached a licensing agreement with the division of SDI Technologies Inc. of Jersey City, N.J. Soundesign, which sells children's electronics known as Playskool Electronics by KIDesigns, will pay Zenith fees for the use of its name.

Zenith Electronics Corp.'s largest shareholder will bail out the television manufacturer under a plan that includes a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. The plan announced Thursday will probably result in the sale of the television maker's U.S. manufacturing operations. Under the reorganization, LG Electronics Inc. of South Korea will forgive millions in debt and provide an additional $60 million in financing in exchange for assuming 100 percent control of Zenith. The deal would allow current company executives to continue to run operations.

Zenith Electronics Corp. will lay off 388 workers at its suburban Chicago television picture tube plant as its struggle to compete against cheaper Japanese televisions continues. The layoffs are in addition to 409 firings the Glenview, Ill., company announced earlier this month. The workers will be let go from Zenith's Melrose Park plant, which analysts expect will eventually close or be sold. Zenith has reported only one profitable quarter since 1985 and has never recovered from the influx of Japanese sets that began in the mid-1970s.